Credit: http://www.projectmanager.com/resources/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/perspective.jpg
Why do Sponsors need to be Agile?
I've observed that the treatment of agile teams at the executive level remains unchanged from their role as sponsors, governance/steering committees. By and large that is a relationship that works. They could consider adopting an Agile framework themselves by reorganising as a kanban team, but that's the focus of another post.
Whatever the framework, there are a number of things that proactive executives can do to assist their team in being even more effective:
- assist in the establishment and monitoring of metrics around their teams
- help become more involved in the day-to-day of their Agile teams and
- assist in the effectiveness of impediment removal.
Getting into it
In "A Light Hand for Effective Results" InfoQ writer pulls together material from Rob Thomsett, author of Radical Project Management to propose the key concepts behind Agile project sponsorship:
- Making time in the sponsor's diary, at least one to three hours per week for meeting project managers, stakeholders, and team members to review project status
- Recognizing that simpler is better than complex
- Paying attention to projects and the key decisions that must be made and managed throughout the project.
- Using face-to-face meetings wherever possible
- Recognizing that delays in decisions cause larger delays in your projects
In a paper on Agile Project Management by Sempre Avanti Consulting they identify four key questions of Agile Project Management:
- Who needs what and why?
- What will it take to do it?
- Can we get what it takes?
- Is it worth it?
These are continually reviewed and if, at any stage, question 4 cannot be answered positively, the project is stopped and only recommences when the answer is positive.
Metrics
Agile Alliance board member Mike Griffiths offers advice on some simple but key metrics that enable Agile project sponsors to monitor the health of their projects, and provides a simple spreadsheet tool for tracking them. The important metrics which Griffiths identifies are:
- Projected and actual project spend rate.
- Iteration velocity.
- Sponsor confidence.
- User satisfaction.
- Cycle time.
The experimental approach
Of course this might not work for your organisation. I'd always encourage you to make a start on it; give it a go and then as always - inspect and adapt.
Let me know how you go with this!